Peter Gram's Passions

Peter Gram's Bio

These bags are great to keep your gear dry while maximizing the awkward spaces in the tips of your kayak. I have a Necky Looksha 14, and use a 20L bag in the front, a 35L wide in the back (barely fits through the hatch).

The Necky Looksha is a great kayak for stability, speed, and steering control. I have paddled it on lakes as well as easy rivers (class 1 and 2), and the rudder makes tracking easy with or without a current. The cockpit is roomy but not too big, and the included seat is very comfortable. A really nice feature is the drink holder between the legs.

There are two hatches which hold a surprising amount of cargo, especially if combined with a taper style dry bag. The neoprene hatch covers are difficult to put on until you get used to it. I found that pulling outwards while stretching the cover helps prevent it from slipping off the hatch rim. There is also room for a 10-15L dry bag in the cockpit behind the seat.

The kayak arrives protected in cardboard, plastic wrap, and foam at the ends. The rudder is not installed on arrival, which is good to prevent damage. It is very easy to install, just requiring an adjustable wrench and a screwdriver.

I was really excited when these cams hit the market, since the CCH offsets had become pretty much impossible to find. I picked up a #00/0 through a #2/3, with the middle two sizes of this range being the most useful. Having the offset cam on your rack can make a pin scar placement secure, or get you past an otherwise sketchy placement with a standard cam. The oval shaped thumb loop works great for clipping in short when aid climbing too.

I think Black Diamond got the width of these slings just right. There are others that are even skinnier, but also many much wider. The 60cm is my most used size, which works great for tripling up in an alpine draw, or as an over the shoulder sling. A few 120cm are also useful for super long runners when you have to place a cam way back in a crack or chimney.

The Master cam is always my go to small cam of choice, especially once the old CCH aliens became scarce. I find the #00 (gray) to #3 (orange) to be the most useful sizes. Particularly the #1 and #2 get placed all the time. Even the #0 and #00 are confidence inspiring when in a good placement. The #3 starts to overlap with other common cams, like the .5 BD Camalot, but is useful due to being a different shape. The oval shaped loop that makes up the thumb catch is great for clipping in short when aid climbing.

I finally decided to replace some of my quickdraws which I've been using since the mid-90s. The Hoodwires are a great quickdraw, which are surprisingly lightweight, and have a large gate opening. The actual "hood wire" is a unique feature as well, which act like a keylock for snag prevention, but with the benefits of a wire gate.

After a long day of climbing, hiking, paddling, or any other sport, it is great to clean up with one of these wipes! The large size is ample to clean up pretty well with a single wipe. Good for camping, adventure travel, or any situation where a shower is far away.

For items that truly need to stay dry, a Pelican case does the trick. The other main feature is to prevent crushing important items, and to add a little shock absorption. Useful for small electronics, wallet, keys, and a med kit.

It's a sponge... nothing too exciting here. But worth bringing along, for a quick way to get extra water out of the cockpit, since it is very absorbent. With a water source to clean the sponge, it can also be used to quickly clean out mud and dirt.

I've used this percolator about a dozen times now. The rubber handle is a key feature, to keep from burning your hands when the coffee is ready. Also a nice feature is that simple instructions are included, with how much coffee to add and how long to percolate. Cleanup is easy.

For such a small headlamp, this really puts out a good beam of light. Great for when your adventures run long, or start early. It does feel a good bit heavier than other small LED headlamps that I've used in the past, but I think that is mostly due to the extra batter (4 AAA).

This is a great dry bag. The window is very useful when you are looking for a specific item in a pile of dry bags that all look alike. There is also a closure within the main compartment, which allows you to partition day use items separate from less frequently needed things.

A nice lantern for adding some light to a campsite or tent, and turning off headlamps for a while. The orientation of the lantern is important, with the most light being given off when it is above your line of sight. I found that the two folding metal pieces that make up the handle can be hooked to the top loop of the tent for an overhead light.

This pair of Keen sandals is great for a day on the river. The toe box keeps your toes safe when pushing off, or taking an unexpected swim. And the closure system is a drawcord, which works much better than velcro over time. The open air water shoes keep your feet cool. Brindle color looks great too.

Very nice basic paddle. The two piece design allows for offsetting the blades to different angles, at various degrees in either direction. And a view finder tells you the exact angle offset. Even though there are many lighter paddles out there, this paddle still feels lightweight even after a long day of paddling. And the drip rings will help to divert water away from you.

I've been using the wide mouth Nalgene bottles for a couple of decades now, and they are always great. They hold abuse well, and have been up many climbs and walls with me. No problem to add boiling water, which can be used for extra warmth in the sleeping bag on very cold nights. Another nice feature is that many water filters attach directly to the threads for easy pumping. And when cooking, the measurements come in handy when trying to add 2 cups to that freeze dried meal.

Nice bottle for one handed drinking. A straw inside allows for sipping water without tipping the bottle. The bottle does seem to leak a little when on its side and jostled around a bit. Better to keep it upright.

Great water bottle for one-handed drinking. The tab on top of the bottle rests between your thumb and fore finger, and the button on the opposite side is pushed to start the water flowing. The bottle is very lightweight too.

These are an important add on to any Yakima racking system. Four cores are needed to lock down a RailGrab tower to start off with. After that, it is often useful to have at least 4 more to lock down other racks on to the rails. Getting a larger set could be worth it for future expansion or for multiple cars, if you want to keep the same lock for all cores.

Installation (and removal) just takes a few seconds per core. There is a key unique to the lock, as well as a control key which allows the lock to be removed if needed, after unlocking it.